Reacher: The Stories Behind the Stories by Lee Child

 

Reacher: The Stories Behind the Stories by Lee Child

Reviewed by Jeanne

Back a few years ago, Otto Penzler managed to talk his friend Lee Child into allowing Penzler to publish special limited editions of the Reacher books.  As an added attraction, Child would write a preface to each book, describing a bit about how it came to be written. Fortunately for Reacher fans without deep pockets, these prefaces have now been gathered into a single volume so that those without the good fortune (or deep pockets) can read them as well.

To be honest, I think I expected it to be a collection of real life true crime incidents that shaped the narratives, an adrenaline-fueled, action packed adventure. Instead, it’s more a thoughtful, insightful, and sometimes gently humorous collection about how Child came to write each book.

The impetus for writing the first Reacher novel was Child’s impending unemployment; it was as good a time as any to investigate a new income stream.  The first book sold, but with much re-writing; and a second book was under contract. The books sold, but weren’t topping the charts.  Fortunately, the mystery community (including Otto Penzler) championed those early books or else the series might have faded into obscurity.  They generated enough interest for the publisher to contract for two more books, and the rest is history.

This book is not just a peek into Child’s personal life and his mindset as he wrote each book; in many ways it’s a look back at a world that no longer exists.  He wrote the first Reacher novel out in longhand, later borrowing his daughter’s computer to type it up. Child didn’t have an email address, a cell phone, or a fax machine.  Manuscripts were delivered by courier. Word of mouth was critical to a book’s success, back in the days before Facebook or TikTok.

There are some interesting insights along the way, such as the fact that Child did not (and still doesn’t) like the title The Killing Floor for the first novel.  It wasn’t until his fifth book, Echo Burning, that Child was able to use a title he chose. That was also the first book he wrote entirely while living in the U.S.

For me, these short, informative, and entertaining introductions have a lot of charm. Child comes across as a guy-next-door sort, never bragging, but always looking for the next tale to tell.

At this point, I should probably admit that I have never read a Reacher novel and yet I thoroughly enjoyed all the insights and stories.  I can only imagine how much a real fan will react.

And by the way—there’s a brand new Reacher story included, “A Better Place.”

Cleaning the Gold: A Jack Reacher and Will Trent Short Story by Karin Slaughter and Lee Child

Reviewed by Kristin

As I may have mentioned once or twice, I do enjoy Karin Slaughter’s series based around Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent Will Trent and medical examiner Sara Linton. I can just imagine the tall buildings of the Atlanta skyline and the dusty red dirt of a Georgia small town when Will and Sara fall into yet another case. (At least their adventures are related to their jobs, as opposed to the small town cupcake bakery/knitting shop/antique store proprietors who seem to have dead bodies turning up every time they open the door. Sorry-not-sorry, cozy authors.)

Jack Reacher is a tough ex-military cop who achieves his goals by any means possible. I have to admit that I’ve never read any Lee Child, although I will have to give him a try one of these days. As soon as my to-be-read pile is done, I promise.

In Cleaning the Gold, Slaughter and Child come together to explore what might happen if their protagonists, Will Trent and Jack Reacher, met each other. The men manage to finagle their way into Fort Knox, both with individual motives. Reacher has his eye on a potential governmental conspiracy, and Trent has his eye on Reacher. Twenty-two years ago in a small Georgia town, a large blond man killed a sheriff’s deputy right in the public library. Could Reacher have been that man?

The United States Treasury governing acts require that the Fort Knox vaults be inspected annually, but every ten years a more extensive measurement and accounting is undertaken. Those gold bars are heavy, and Trent and Reacher are hired for their muscles. But with that much gold, greed and dishonesty rear their ugly heads.

While a very short story at seventy-nine pages, I found this to be a quick and enjoyable read. This may be enough to move Lee Child upwards in my reading queue. Slaughter’s new novel The Last Widow (recently reviewed here) is previewed as well, taking up at least a third of the slim volume. Can one story have more than one hero? If this has interested you at all, pick it up and see how these two big guys interact.

Blue Moon by Lee Child

Reviewed by Laura

         

          Blue Moon by Lee Child is the latest in the Jack Reacher series. I love Jack Reacher and wait anxiously for each new installment. After reading the latest, I may be done with Reacher forever. If you’re a fan, you probably know why I love Reacher. He doesn’t have a home or a cell phone. He travels from city to city, state to state, by bus or hitchhiking, with the clothes on his back and a toothbrush in his pocket. He lays his clothes under the mattress at whatever hotel he is staying at to remove the wrinkles. When they wear out, he buys a new outfit. Since he’s retired military police, he does have a debit card that he uses to pay his expenses, mostly a place to stay and gallons of coffee. Rarely does he stay in one city more than a week. Always, he meets people who need his expertise and he helps them because that is the kind of person he is. With his huge size, military training, and high intelligence, he is definitely the person you want in your corner.

          This book starts out much the same: he’s on a bus, he sees a young punk planning to rob an older man and Reacher follows and intervenes. After that situation is dealt with in true Reacher fashion, he helps the older gentleman home and he intrinsically becomes involved in the old man’s problems. Aaron Shevik and his wife are in debt to loan sharks because of the cost of very expensive experimental cancer treatments for their daughter.  Unfortunately, the loan sharks are part of a very dangerous and deeply entrenched network with rival factions running the town so there is no relief in sight. Of course, Reacher enlists a love interest, and her friends, as they take on the whole underground network that keeps the town in servitude.

          Typical Reacher, except it’s not. Very little mention is made of his nomadic existence and character development is nonexistent. Reacher has always done whatever it took to champion the underdog, even if murder was the only answer. He always gave them a running start, but was always victorious. This Reacher would more aptly be named Terminator. The body count in this book was too high for me to even estimate the number. It feels more like a movie shoot ‘em up screen play, than a traditional Reacher adventure. The fact that Hollywood took over the series and started a franchise (Don’t EVEN get me started on Tom Cruise playing the mountainous main character!) has ruined this wonderful series.  Reacher never killed unless he had to do so, he maimed and disabled, but never took a life unless it was necessary for the greater good. This Reacher killed almost everyone who got in his way and even killed in retaliation, rather than necessity. And that is why I will probably not read the next installment in a series I previously loved. However, if you enjoy action novels and are not as familiar with Reacher as I am, you would probably enjoy the book. For Reacher fans, I’m afraid this offering will be a disappointment.

Nevermore: Finding Me, Hidden White House, Legends & Lies, Make Me, Blackout

Reported by Ambrea

This week, our readers first looked at Finding Me:  A Decade in Darkness, A Life Reclaimed by Michelle Knight.  Knight, after being kidnapped by Ariel Castro, spent over a decade in captivity.  She was subjected to unimaginable abuse, enduring years of violent physical and emotional abuse at the hands of her captor.  Michelle, who had become estranged from her family and lost her son in a custody battle, was believed to have simply run away and, after her disappearance, she was eventually scratched from missing persons lists.  On May 6, 2013, she—along with Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus—escaped from Castro’s home.  Her story was heart-wrenching, according to our Nevermore reader, and absolutely incredible.  She highly recommended it, saying it was amazing to see what one individual can ensure—that someone can come out on the other side.

Next, our Nevermore readers looked at The Hidden White House:  Harry Truman and the Reconstruction of America’s Most Famous Residence by Robert Klara.  In 1948, after Truman reported nearly plunging through the ceiling of the Blue Room from the second floor, a group of architects discovered that the White House was in imminent danger of collapsing.  Built on a marshy foundation and damaged by a fire during the War of 1812, the White House was literally falling apart with the First Family in it—and, as the cover attests, “[what] followed would be the most historically significant and politically complex home-improvement job in American history.”  According to our reader, Klara’s investigation into the reconstruction of America’s most iconic home was fantastic and especially vivid with its pictures.  “It was a lively description of what happened and what was done [to repair the White House],” he said.

Legends and Lies:  The Real West by Bill O’Reilly and David Fisher followed, providing an even deeper look into the history of America.  Focusing on the American frontier and some of its most iconic gunslingers, cowboys, robbers and lawmen, Legends and Lies provided a lot of interesting information.  Although our readers questioned how accurate certain facts were within the book, our readers seemed to like it pretty well.  One reader found the chapter on “Black Bart” fascinating—because, although Bart was a criminal, he never fired a gun and he only ever robbed Wells Fargo stagecoaches (he had a thirst for vengeance, our Nevermore reader admitted).

Additionally, our readers looked at Make Me by Lee Child.  Continuing the adventures (or, more accurately, misadventures) of Jack Reacher, Make Me begins in a little town called “Mother’s Rest.”  In Mother’s Rest, Reacher meets Michelle Chang, who accidentally mistakes him for her missing partner.  With nowhere to go and no one to meet, Reacher becomes embroiled in Michelle’s investigation—and discovers that things are more nightmarish than he ever imagined.  Our reader liked Child’s novel quite a bit, but she found there was a lot of “back and forth,” which left her feeling more than a little confused.  She said she could never really decide what they were after.

Last but not least, our readers explored Blackout by Connie Willis.  Set in the distant future of 2060, Blackout follows Michael Davies, Merope Ward, and Polly Churchill, time-traveling historians who are sent back to 1940.  But when time assignments are changed and, in some cases, cancelled altogether, Michael, Merope, and Polly are faced with the very will possibility that time travel isn’t an infallible science—and they may be stuck in a past that has been forever altered by the interference of the future.  Our reader said Blackout was an enjoyable science-fiction novel, full of adventure and intrigue; however, after completing Willis’ novel, our reader said she had the dispiriting realization that Blackout was only the first half of the book.   (All Clear finishes the story.)